Public Accounts Committee member Jeff Sousa has criticised Zane DeSilva for failing to “acknowledge mistakes” with the Port Royal Golf Course.

Mr Sousa expressed his disappointment that the Progressive Labour Party MP used his appearance at the PAC meeting on Wednesday to undermine former Auditor-General Heather Jacobs Matthews.

Mr Sousa, a One Bermuda Alliance backbencher, said in a statement: “The Auditor-General’s report into the project revealed a mess of unauthorised actions, conflicts of interest and disregard of financial instructions, including failures to tender and secure Cabinet approval where required.

“Instead of acknowledging the situation, Mr DeSilva, who was a Government MP at the time of the project and a member of the Port Royal board of trustees, attacked the credibility of the Auditor-General and her findings on the project that involved his firm, Island Construction.

“Mr DeSilva had the gall to defend Port Royal’s board payment of a $10,000 finder’s fee that ultimately went to a board member as ‘not abnormal at all’ — a statement that contradicted the Auditor-General’s conclusion that the payment was ‘inappropriate behaviour … by any standards’.

“I was disappointed with Mr DeSilva’s testimony because its tenor left no room for acknowledging mistakes that clearly infected the project, and which became the focus of the Auditor-General’s special report.”

Mrs Matthews’ report, in 2014, said that the $24.5 million project, which went over budget by more than $10 million, suffered from “lack of oversight, cost overruns and inadequate accounting”.

Appearing before the PAC on Wednesday, Mr DeSilva said he believed the development had given value for money.